How Chinese medicine views the liver and allergies

How Chinese medicine views the liver and allergies

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) emphasizes that an allergy-free and healthy body often depends on a balanced liver. The liver, a Yin organ, controls tendons, keeps Qi moving throughout the body, and stores blood. Your Yang partner is the gallbladder, which stores and excretes bile, protects the nervous system from overreactions and helps stabilize emotions. If the liver is clogged from eating yang (heating) or overloading the body with toxins (more yang), the function of the gallbladder is also impaired and symptoms of allergies may manifest.

One day, Stan, a 39-year-old computer engineer, accidentally came into contact with poison ivy while hiking. He was unaware of this until two days later when he developed a rash accompanied by unpleasant itching (allergic contact dermatitis).

Stan tried to relieve the symptoms by taking an over-the-counter antihistamine, Beneadryl. This reduced the itching, but the rash continued to get worse. When he consulted acupuncturist Ira J. Golchehreh, L.Ac., OMD, of San Rafael, California, six days after exposure, he had hard, large, red blisters all over his body, particularly on his abdomen, thighs, and groin.

Dr. Golchehreh discovered that Stan had a history of severe allergies as well as signs of liver imbalance that manifested emotionally as occasional angry outbursts. According to TCM, this indicates “liver yang hyperactivity,” explains Dr. Golchehreh or Liver, whose energy or “fire” is so over-reactive (Yang) that it causes problems throughout the body and mind. Poison ivy is also an expression of too much heat, says Dr. Golchehreh, “and the boils are considered a poisonous infection in the organs.”

The first task was to remove the heat from Stan's system so that the toxic manifestation would be eliminated. Dr. Golchehreh used acupuncture to redirect Qi imbalances and drain the toxins from his system. Additionally, he gave Stan the Chinese herbs Bupleurum schizonepeta (commonly used to treat hives) and gypsum fibrosum (calcium sulfate) to distribute heat and remove toxins from his system. Stan also moistened the plaster fibrosum powder with water to make a paste and applied it topically to cool the lesions. Another remedy in TCM that rebalances the liver is a combination of the herbs Tang-Kuei and Gardenia (3 g three times daily between meals).

“I recommended that Stan drink cooling drinks and eat ice cream to cool his body temperature,” says Dr. Golchehreh. "If blisters have become inflamed, this indicates too much heat on the surface of the body. The best thing to do is to cool the system with something cold." Applying ice to the skin may also be beneficial for poison ivy symptoms.

Since poison ivy often lasts for weeks, Stan was relieved to find that 48 hours after his visit to Dr. Golchehreh all traces of his allergic contact dermatitis had disappeared.

Inspired by Ken Phoenix